Hello from Rob
Post categories: Teacher blog
| 09:47 UK time, Monday, 5 December 2011
Hi everyone,
My name's Rob and I'm the new teacher blogger this month.
First of all, a special 'bonjour' to our student blogger Chrystel. Thanks for your interesting blog about Christmas in Paris. It sounds wonderful but I think your city is beautiful any time of the year.
Here in London, the Christmas decorations are also up and people are out and about doing the Christmas shopping.
I live outside London in a small village and our local church is full of Christmas trees (fir trees) decorated with lights, as you can see in this photo.
The Lights of Love festival
Even if you are not celebrating the religous aspect of Christmas the lights brighten up the dark winter nights. It's also a special time of the year especially for children - and just like you Chrystel, I have two of them (but not twins). They have written their letters to Father Christmas (Santa Claus) and next weekend they will be visiting him at our local shopping centre!
Let me tell you a bit about myself. Many years ago I was a school teacher but since then have spent many years making radio programmes, particularly for children. I also love to travel and have visited many parts of the World. Here's a photo I took on my travels in France near the city of Brian莽on.
An Alpine mountain scene
Anyway, this is my first time writing the Teacher Blog and I look forward to talking with you this month and hopefully helping you with your English.
Enjoy your trip to Cabourg. Bon voyage!
LANGUAGE POINTS
Congratulations on your English. Your blog was clear to understand and you are able to communicate what you want to say. However I hope you don't mind if I comment on a few things that may help you improve your English:
1) Have a think about your word order. When you say "we say every morning Hello to the Santa Claus", the structure is slightly wrong. You should follow the verb 'say' with what is being said. That is: "say hello". And the expression "every morning" sounds better at the beginning or end of the sentence. For example:
a) "We say hello to Santa every morning."
b) "Every morning we say hello to Santa."
2) Also note, I didn't say 'the' Santa Claus. We use the article 'the' or 'a' before nouns, such as 'the door on the right'. But we don't normally use them before someone's name such as 'the Chrystel' or 'the Rob' unless you are specifying one Chrystel out of many with the same name. For example, if someone was to ask "which Chrystel is coming to the party?" you can reply "the Chrystel who lives in Paris, not the Chrystel who lives in Reims."
3) Finally, capitalisation. When describing an actress as French, 'French' needs a capital letter. Names of countries begin with capital letters as do the nationalities of people. Finn wrote more about capitalisation in his teacher blog. Check it out!
4) You also wrote that a famous French actress give the departure to the lights of the Champs Elysees Avenue. Perhaps you could explain more about what you mean. Departure means leaving but did you mean switching on or switching off the lights or was she at an opening ceremony?
HOMEWORK
1) Why not blog about your trip to Cabourg, taking in the points I have made above.
2) Decide if these sentences should have 'the' in them or not:
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with the Paul.
The best way to improve is just to practice speaking and writing English so we look forward to reading your next blog. That's all from me this week. Au revoir! Rob
Comment number 1.
At 6th Dec 2011, max wrote:Hi Rob,
nice to meet you. I try to answer at your question about "the". In my opinion I could give up the article in the first, second and also in the third sentence, but I would take it off in the last part of the third
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
Thanks Rob for your post and obviously, thank to new nice student. When I read about Cabourg, I've suddenly remembed about Marcel Proust. Maybe I'm being mistaken, but it seem me that it's the town where's set that bautiful and amazing and unforgettable book which is "A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleur", isn't it?
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Comment number 2.
At 6th Dec 2011, Soler wrote:Hello Rob
Very pleased to see your first blog post and I must spot how beautiful is nature in your photo.
As regards the homework:
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see an old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked a teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
Best regards
Sofiko
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Comment number 3.
At 6th Dec 2011, Tatiana wrote:Hi Rob,
Nice to meet you as a teacher blogger.
I鈥檓 impressed with your photo taken in France. I have to say that I look at it with admiring envy! Once you wrote that you鈥檙e very enthusiastic about your camera. So am I. And when I see such an excellent picture I think: 鈥淲hy it isn鈥檛 mine picture? I whish I were there! I wish I were able to do the same!鈥 ;)
As for our homework I鈥檓 constantly confused with those pesky articles. Now I鈥檓 also not sure whether I鈥檓 completely right.
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see an old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
Have a nice time.
Tatiana
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Comment number 4.
At 6th Dec 2011, Tanica_g wrote:Hello Rob,
Nice to meet you, it's so nice to have a new teacher blogger.
Your photos are so lovely, especially the mountain scene.
This is my view of the homework:
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
I can't wait to read your next post.
Best regards,
Tania
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Comment number 5.
At 6th Dec 2011, bomsan wrote:Hi Rob,
Nice to meet you. I am sure that we not only learn English here, but get some opportunities to appreciate arts. It's difficult to take my eyes off from such incredible photo which was taken in France. Thank you very much for loading this in your posting.
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see an old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked a teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
Best wishes,
bomsan
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Comment number 6.
At 7th Dec 2011, sdluk wrote:Hello Rob,
Nice blog and congrats on your first blog posting here.
Please check my answers -
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see an old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
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Comment number 7.
At 7th Dec 2011, Maja wrote:Hi,
I think that Christmastime is the most beautiful period in the year. The streets are colorful, friendly people, everything seems to be hopeful. Of course that it is only our illusion but why not to take advantage of this... Personally I think we transfer ourselves to the fairyland for a month. What's a pity that so shortly, after all everyone wants to be a child even for a moment....
My homework (by guess):
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see an old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
Best regards
Maja from Poland
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Comment number 8.
At 7th Dec 2011, Pary wrote:Hi Rob ,What a pleasure to meet you again ! Your local church looks so beautiful in fir trees and what a breath taking scenery , I have the same feeling like Tatiana when I see a nice shot . By the way how is your little girl ? I remember her shots in last year huge snowfall ! I 'm looking forward reading your interesting entries in the busy month of the year!
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Comment number 9.
At 8th Dec 2011, Varisha wrote:Hello and welcome Rob!
Hope you enjoy this month with us. I am hoping to improve my English with your help. To be honest, you have already focused on the two words which I find very hard to use when I write, particularly using the word "the". You said that "the" is usually used before a noun so I will try to remember this in the future.
Your post about Christmas is really good and the pictures are beautiful. I didn't know there are mountains in France.
Now, let me do the home work:
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked a teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to the cinema with Paul.
Looking forward to your next post.
Varisha
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Comment number 10.
At 9th Dec 2011, elebre wrote:Hello Rob, thank you for your tips. About the homework assigned I would say:
a) This weekend we are visiting Cabourg to see the old castle.
b) When I was at school I liked the teacher who taught me English.
c) I love to go to cinema with Paul.
Looking forward to read next posts,
elena
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Comment number 11.
At 15th Dec 2011, Naheed wrote:Hello Rob,
Thank you for your first post and your explanation is very helpful. Rob, would you explain a little about the adverbials of frequency and their uses, like the one you explained in the first correction 'Every morning'. Adverbials are used in three ways,in the front,in the middle and on the end of a sentence and are also sometimes confused with prepositions. How to differentiate them in that case?
All the best,
Naheed
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Comment number 12.
At 15th Dec 2011, Tadassa wrote:Hi Rob,
I'm glad to hear you are the teacher blog of this busy month.
I always learn new things with teachers blogs. So 'fir trees'are 'Christmas trees'? I had no idea.
Wow, so this is your first writing in the teacher blog? Congratulations, you did it very well. Your explanations are so clear and completely understandable.
Hope to hear the explanation about Naheed's question related to adverbials.
Take care,
Tadassaa.
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Comment number 13.
At 27th Dec 2011, Jessy wrote:1. There should not be "the" but "an"
2.There should be a "the" before the noun.
3. There should not be a "the" before the noun.
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